Avengers - The Traveler
by Ashelia Crosse
Summary: Based in an alternate universe where SHIELD has an ulterior motive to collecting and using the supers of the world, one named the Traveler rises and tries to work behind SHIELD's back to save both her dearest friends and the world that they love.


They had secrets.

Everybody had secrets, of course, but not like SHIELD had secrets. I knew almost instantly why they didn't want anyone to know about this. They were just manipulating us until they could use us. Three years had passed since my first run in with SHIELD. Three years since I had accepted to become a part of the Avengers. I did not regret it. I had had fun and made a difference to the world, but this... None of us would survive.

A banging erupted against the door. They thought they knew the extent of my powers, and were threatening me to not teleport out of the room, or it would call for an immediate warrant for my death. I was not worried - they would not even be able to know I was gone. They would never even know that I had discovered their secret. Closing my eyes, I thought about that fateful day when one of Tony's robots went rogue, and starting destroying everything. If I was changing the past, I might as well fix that, too.

The knocking and yelling subsided. Silence. Ah, it had been so long since I had travelled through time. It was an amazing experience letting your spirit pass through the cold depths of time before re-entering your body at another time period. I had never travelled forward, but I feared what could happen if I did. I rarely travelled back. I longed to do it more. This feeling was like ecstasy.

With the noise of the city swelling around me, I knew that I had found my destination. Jerking my head towards the right, I looked for the source of the current issue. The little gold and red device was only about a foot away, and I snatched it up. Stark. That would be the quickest way to solve this problem, and then I would tell him about the future. Hopefully he trusted me as well now as he did later on in life. Or that he would at least try.

Already, the tiny but vicious robot was growing larger and beginning to work. I had to find Stark fast, and luckily, I had an idea of where he might be. There was a bar he loved to go to downtown, and from my knowledge, he had been going there for years. Hopefully, it would be my lucky day.

"Tony," I said, avoiding formalities completely. "We need to talk. Now."

He was drunk, and it was all too obvious. His eyes drifted directly to my breasts, which I suddenly realized were fairly obvious in the outfit I had been wearing. "Have we met before, beautiful?" He was slurring. This was not the time for him to be this far gone.

"In another time." I knew he would have questions, but I had no intention of answering them. I pulled the small device out of my poket. It was already twice it's original size. "You need to shut this down immediately."

His attempt to be seductive lingered for a moment, but as soon as his eyes drifted over to the device, they narrowed. "Where did you find that?"

"It found me." It wasn't a lie. The first time, it had. I could explain the technicalities later.

Grabbing it, he looked it over. "What's it doing?" he murmured, more to himself than me. "We need to get to my lab."

"You don't want to know what it's doing," I whispered, hoping his drunk self couldn't hear me.

He was already getting up, paying his bills, and trying to get his coat on. It was messy, and it hurt me to watch, but I stood aside. We may have been lovers, but not at this point in his life. I had to try my best, but it was painful to watch.

We did not have time to get out the door before the device began working vigorously. It bit Stark, making him drop it, and began to grow to one of it's full forms. In front of us stood a large mechanical gold and red Thor. It looked at me, nodded, and then flew off, making passerbyers look back at us in fear. I wondered what it knew of me in this timeline.

"Tell me again," Stark said, looking me in the eyes this time, "what your name was."

"I am the Traveler, Tony Stark. It's a pleasure to meet you again."


End file.
